


Too Long to Wait

by ValdangeloMalec



Category: Captain America - All Media Types, Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: M/M, Marriage Proposal, me wanting to ignore the cinematic universe and just write fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-17
Updated: 2018-03-17
Packaged: 2019-04-03 16:17:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,191
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13999890
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ValdangeloMalec/pseuds/ValdangeloMalec
Summary: It was a well-documented fact that there was a ring at the Captain America exhibit at the Smithsonian. It was a slightly misshapen, chunky silver ring attached to the same silver chain as his dog tags, and was found in Captain America’s belongings after his presumed death.It was a little known fact – a fact only known to him, in fact – that the Winter Soldier had to take just one look at this ring, and know. He wasn’t sure quite what it was he knew yet, but he was on track to finding out.





	Too Long to Wait

**Author's Note:**

> Hey guys, I'm finally posting another work that I've been meaning to write for a while. This is kind of ignoring civil war and infinity war, so I guess its set after the winter soldier. Also, there are some (very general, barely even) spoilers for Star Trek alternate universe (because it worked the best for the story line, idk i recently watched the new movies).  
> Enjoy!

It was a well-documented fact that there was a ring at the Captain America exhibit at the Smithsonian. It was a slightly misshapen, chunky silver ring attached to the same silver chain as his dog tags, and was found in Captain America’s belongings after his presumed death.

It was a little known fact – a fact only known to him, in fact – that the Winter Soldier had to take just one look at this ring, and know. He wasn’t sure quite what it was he knew yet, but he was on track to finding out.

~*~

They had good days and bad days, Steve and Bucky, ever since Bucky showed up at the Avengers Tower a few months ago, sitting on the couch on the common floor and scaring the shit out of Tony.

(“I didn’t scream,” Tony had insisted later, once Steve had dragged Bucky to his floor for a tearful reunion and a fresh change of clothes.

“Mhmm,” Natasha agreed easily, but the recording of Tony’s scream was somehow set as his ringtone and he _couldn’t change it, what the fuck, Nat._ )

Some things were still hazy for Bucky. Sometimes he would tell stories with such clarity that Steve would beam at him for the rest of the day. Sometimes he would get half way through one of these stories and notice the grimace on Steve’s face, and realise it had never happened.

But recently, they’ve been mostly good days. Bucky’s stopped ignoring his therapist, news stations have grown tired of the Winter Soldier, with no new information coming in, and Bucky as settled himself back into Steve’s life nicely. The two of them were almost like they were before, during the war – or at least, they were as far as Bucky knew. And Steve was fine with that. Really, he was.

They’d settled into a rhythm, and Steve finally felt like he understood what was going on in Bucky’s head as well as he could. That’s why it was such a shock when it happened.

It had started with a movie. Or more, it had started with Tony.

“You can’t just not watch the new _Star Treks_ ,” Tony was arguing with Clint as the two of them spilled out of the elevator onto the common floor, where Steve was trying to recreate his Ma’s apple pie for Bucky while Natasha looked on in amusement, letting out little huffs of laughter ever so often that Steve was sure meant he had done something wrong.

“Sure I can,” Clint shrugged, “I liked the old ones, and I’m perfectly happy pretending the new ones don’t exist.”

Steve blocked out the conversation after this – Tony and Clint liked to loudly argue about things like movies, even though it frequently ended with Clint turning off his hearing aids and refusing to watch Tony butcher sign language in frustration whenever Clint was about to lose.

Instead, Steve focused on the fact that his pastry wouldn’t stick together but somehow was stuck too solidly against the chopping board he was rolling it out against.

“Didn’t you start a fire the last time you tried to recreate your Ma’s recipe,” Bucky asked, eyes squinting like they sometimes did when he was trying to grasp onto a memory.

“You’re the one who distracted me,” Steve protested automatically. The fire had been small, anyway, it was no big deal. Steve looked at Bucky expectantly before even realized what he was doing. This argument was so old they used to practically be able to have it in their sleep, but evidently Bucky didn’t know his next line.

“What was I doing?” he asked instead, and Steve berated himself for being disappointed. They would get there eventually. Instead, he needed to focus on trying to answer that question without giving too much away. Steve opened his mouth to answer, but Tony got in the way.

“I’m declaring an emergency movie marathon to watch all the new _Star Trek_ movies, and anyone who doesn’t attend” – he shot pointed looks towards Clint, who already had his mouth open to protest, and Steve, who had discovered that he and Tony had a drastically different taste in movies – “will be locked out of their floor for a week.” It sounded like needless dramatics, but Steve knew Tony would follow through, ever since Clint had to spent a week on the common floor couch after not showing up to watch _Pacific Rim_.

Still, Steve might have protested, if not for the way he saw Bucky light up after Tony began a long-winded description of the movie for him. Instead, he let out a long-suffering sigh and dumped his slightly-too-sloppy apples into his crumbly pastry.

~*~

Of the two of them, it was always Bucky who was into science – dragging Steve to science fairs, buying magazines when they had the spare money, rambling onto Steve about what he read while Steve half listened, too focused on how the passion in his eyes made Bucky look so much younger. Steve thought that he and Tony would make good friends, if only Tony weren’t so… Tony.

Steve didn’t mind the first movie, but didn’t like it enough to want to watch the second one. But he stayed, not just because of Tony’s threat, but because immediately after the credits began rolling, Bucky demanded answers from Tony and Bruce about when they could begin exploring space like they were in the movie – “Why aren’t we doing it now? We’ve gone to the moon; I saw a clip on YouTube.”

So Steve stayed, and sat through the second movie, head dropping onto Bucky’s shoulder unthinkingly half way through. He froze for a moment when he realized what he’d done, but Bucky just shifted to make the two of them more comfortable, even though it meant most of Steve’s Body pressed alongside his. It made the second half much more enjoyable.

“I _told_ you they were good,” Tony said smugly as he loaded the third movie at Clint’s begrudging demand. Bucky was mostly quiet during the movies, but the moment anything exciting happened, he elbowed Steve, like he knew Steve was paying more attention to Bucky’s reactions than the film.

It wasn’t until the end of the third film that things started to go wrong.

“Whoa,” Clint said, breaking the silence in the room and making Steve focus back on what was happening on the screen. “They decided to give Sulu a husband in this reality?” Tony began to blather on about something, mentions names – actors, probably – that Steve didn’t know, but Steve was too focused on the way that Bucky tensed against him at the mention of Sulu’s husband. It was like Steve realised a moment too late that unlike him, Bucky hadn’t been updated on the modern world.

“They gave him a _what_?” Bucky asked before Steve could figure out how to pull him aside and explain, and the attitudes in Tony’s small theatre changed, tension brewing as they tried to figure out Bucky’s reaction.

“A husband,” Tony replied, slightly wary and not hiding it well.

“But – but they _can’t_ ,” Bucky replied firmly, and Steve wanted to explain what he meant to the rest of the avengers, who were giving each other uncomfortable looks, but he doesn’t want to prompt Bucky, wants him to remember in his own time.

“Actually, they can. Forgetting the fact that this is set hundreds of years in the future, same-sex marriage has been legal in all of America since 2015,” Natasha explained calmly, searching Bucky’s reaction.

“So you mean to tell me that – that two fellas can just go and get married now?” Bucky asked faintly, and Natasha nodded.

“Or two women. It’s all legal.”

Bucky sat stock still for a few moments, before lurching to his feet suddenly. “I have to…” he trailed off, and then left without another word.

Well, Steve supposed that answered the question of whether or not Bucky remembered them.

“He’s not homophobic,” He heard himself say faintly, only to grow annoyed at the slightly pitying looks he got in response. “Really, he’s not. It’s just a lot to process,” he said firmer, before standing up and leaving, ready to drift into an uneasy sleep.

~*~

Bucky didn’t return until the following day around noon, when they were all lounging in the common room, waiting for Bruce to finish cooking them lunch.

He stumbled through the doors, looking dead on his feet but triumphant, his metal arm clenching something in a fist. Steve didn’t let himself relax completely, but it was a relief for him to be home.

Bucky’s eyes found Steve’s immediately, ignoring everyone else who was watching his return with interest.

“I would’ve done this last night,” Bucky said abruptly, gaze not leaving Steve’s for a second, “but it didn’t feel right without this.” Bucky let is fist unclench and showed a misshapen lump of a ring attached to a chain with Steve’s old dog tags. He knew it was at the Smithsonian, but it was too painful a reminder to have, so he let them keep it.

“I didn’t know you remembered,” Steve said weakly, leaning against the kitchen counter as Bucky came closer, smile curving at his lips.

“Shut up and let me do this properly,” Bucky said, sliding the ring off of the chain.

“Technically, you already –” Steve began to protest weakly, but cut himself off when Bucky ignored him and go onto one knee.

“Holy shit,” Clint hissed to Natasha off to the side, reminding Steve that he was probably about to cry in front of all of his teammates.

“Steven Grant Rogers,” Bucky began, “since you let me spend months here without deigning to tell me that we could legally get married, even though we used to talk about it all the time during the war-”

“I didn’t know you remembered it,” Steve protested, but Bucky just shushed him.

“-I guess I’ll have to propose again, even though I proposed last time and it’s definitely your turn.” Bucky cleared his throat, as though suddenly nervous, as though Steve would say anything but yes. “So. Will you marry me? You better say yes, because I had to steal this ring from the Smithsonian and it’d be awfully embarrassing to have to return it.”

“If I say yes, will you try to squeeze the ring on my finger again?” Steve asked, and Bucky made an affronted noise.

“It is _not_ my fault that my grandfather had weirdly shaped fingers, and that I wanted to be romantic like and put the ring on you like in the pictures.”

“Stand up, you goof,” Steve said, half dragging Bucky up so that he could kiss him for the first time in 70 years. His hair was longer, and the hand clutching Steve’s arm was cool to the touch, but other than that it was just like the last time they’d kissed, a stolen one right before Bucky’s last mission while the Howling Commandos pretended not to know why they needed a moment alone.

“I don’t have your ring,” Steve said sadly once they parted. Bucky’s ring was one that Steve’s mother had given him, her engagement ring from his father. It had been too small for Bucky, and they were both too broke to get new matching rings, but Bucky had proclaimed it as perfect, and kept it on his dog tags like Steve had. It had fallen with Bucky, and was presumably either lost in the world or taken by Hydra after they found Bucky. Steve hoped it was the first option.

“You haven’t actually said yes yet,” Bucky pointed out, and Steve rolled his eyes.

“Buck, I’ve wanted to marry you since we were sixteen and you said you wanted to go out with Cindy from down the road. I’d marry you tomorrow if I could.”

“Uh,” Tony cut in, reminding the two of them once again that they weren’t alone. That Bucky couldn’t’ve waited another hour, when Steve would be back on his floor. “You probably _can_ get married tomorrow. Pepper can book you in at city hall if you like.”

“Oh, no way,” Bucky refused immediately. “I’ve been thinking about the day I’d get to marry him since the first time I kissed him, we’re not skimping out and going down to city hall. I was to cry as you walk down the aisle,” Bucky said, turning to Steve.

“But we’ve waited to many years,” Steve complained, not bothering to argue about who would walk down the aisle.

“And you can wait a few months longer. And don’t bother arguing with me on the colour scheme, I’ve had it picked out since I was twenty,” Bucky warned.

Steve smiled, looking at the man that he’s loved since before he really knew what that meant, who took care of him when he was sick and pretended he enlisted to go to war so Steve wouldn’t know how terrified he was after he got his conscription letter, who looked the Commandos in the eye and told them that if they didn’t like it they could go, but he would never stop loving Steve.

“I wouldn’t dream of it.”

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading guys, idk if this is it for this work or if I'll end up writing something about the wedding (no promises, there are few things I'm better at than saying I'm going to write something and then doing it when I remember a year later).


End file.
